A second-year BTech student at IIT-Bombay has died, leading to the suspension of Suryanarayana Doolla from his position as dean of administrative affairs. This incident has sparked a divided response among students, faculty, and online communities. The university community is grappling with the implications of this tragedy and the administrative actions taken in its wake.
Doolla was the invigilator during the exam. In the same statement, Kulkarni also called for a reform to ensure students can manage stress better through additional coaching, peer-support initiatives and other such measures. However, he also defended the IIT faculty saying they already undergo significant stress due to being short-staffed despite a substantial increase in student intake.
IIT-Bombay had said that the student who died had been found using a mobile phone during the examination and had uploaded the question paper on ChatGPT to seek answers. As a massive protest erupted at the Powai campus over the student’s death, IIT-B faculty members argued that the professor was only doing his job and followed “Senate-approved exam procedure” when he reported the student over phone use.
many are also coming out in Doolla’s support, who was the invigilator at the exam in which the student was caught cheating hours before taking the extreme step While people are expressing sorrow over the student’s suicide. “The case against Prof. Doolla under the SC/ST Act must be withdrawn,” Kulkarni wrote in a statement, arguing that cases of student suicides come from all castes and communities. “The causes behind these tragedies vary. However, if a student belongs to the SC or ST communities, it is wrong to automatically fix guilt on persons belonging to the so-called “upper castes and to seek punishment for them under the stringent provisions of the SC/ST Act.
It amounts to “reverse casteism”,” he added.
